Parallel Universe
by Lalilala
Summary: A "Sliding Doors" kind of story, where some "what ifs" might find just the right answers. "Kate, do you believe in parallel universes?"
1. Chapter 1

_**Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS or its character.**_

_**AN: **_This is a work of fiction. I don't have any proof on the existence of parallel universes…. Yet.

_**AN 2: **_The flashbacks/dreams are written in Italics.

Please review.

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Tony woke up with a gasp. He looked around to find himself behind his desk in the bullpen. He looked at the window and noticed the sun was barely beginning to rise. Sighing, he glanced at the clock on his computer screen. It was 6:40 in the morning. He decided to get up, since going back to sleep for less than a hour seemed useless to him.

Walking towards the gym's locker room to take a shower he found himself reminiscing the dream he just had; he didn't usually remember his dreams. Yes, sometimes waking up he still felt the "leftovers" of the dream, but they were usually just light feelings of joy, pain or fear; nothing really clear. This time, though, he could remember exactly what was the dream that caused his not-so-nice awakening. Mostly because it was more of a flashback that his sleeping mind caught from his memories and unconsciously brought back rather than a bare fragment of his imagination. Sitting down an uncomfortable chair in the middle of the locker room, he replayed his dream once again in his mind, this time fully conscious of the memory he was producing.

"_Do you believe in parallel universes?"_

"_What do you mean? Is this some sort of movie reference?"_

"_Ha-ha, no Katie dear. I'm asking a serious question here."_

"_Well, Tony… I am not sure. I mean, it's not something I think about everyday, you know?"_

"_Sometimes I wonder if they exist."_

"_You will never cease to surprise me, DiNozzo."_

"_Well, you know the movie 'Sliding Doors'?"_

"_Here comes the movie reference…"_

"_You know the one with Gwyneth Paltrow…"_

"_Yes, I know the movie, Tony."_

"_Well, as the audience we get the chance to see what would have happened to her if she caught the train and what would have happened if she didn't. I think parallel universes are exactly like that. You know, places where we made different choices in life or well, where fate had different plans for us."_

"_For example?"_

"_Well, in the movie in one universe Gwyneth Paltrow's character dies and in the other she doesn't. You know that's a pretty big difference..."_

_"I guess it is... Mind to give me a more practical example?"_

_" Well, what about... Have you ever wondered how would have things turned out for you if you just went all the way through law school rather than joining the Secret Service?"_

"_I would probably have a family by now, work for an important firm and keep a few vintage Porsches in the garage."_

"_See, that's what I'm talking about, Kate. Maybe in a parallel universe you're married to a chubby and bald mediation lawyer and have 2 kids that look just like their father."_

"_Maybe you're a fat cashier at Walmart. That would be realistic."_

"_Oh, Kate, you hurt me!"_

"_That's what I was aiming to, DiNozzo. Anyway, I think the government pays us to work, not to wonder about parallel universes."_

"_I know Katie, but you can't deny that this is a pretty interesting subject."_

"_For once I might just have to agree with you."_

"_Hmm.. Kate Todd is agreeing with me. How did we even end up in a parallel universe so fast!? I want to go home!"_

"_Tony, you're such an idiot! I am serious. I like your idea about the existence of a parallel universe. If you're right it might mean that there's a place somewhere where all of our 'what ifs' have answers…"_

"_You know what, Kate? I will bring you to a parallel universe one day. So you will see for yourself that working with me is way better than being married to a chubby and unattractive workaholic."_

"_Tony, first of all what makes a universe parallel is the fact the it is __**PARALLEL **__and parallels are never meant to meet. Second of all I can only think of very, very few things that might be worst than working with you, and I am not even so sure about half of them."_

"_Give me an example…"_

"_Well… Being shot by a sniper in the head would probably be worst."_

"_Not bad, Katie, not bad. But I hope you'll take up on the offer."_

"_What offer?"_

"_Visiting a parallel universe with me, of course."_

"_Sure. But I advise you to finish your paperwork before traveling around galaxies. You never know how far Gibbs could go to track people down!"_

"_Ha-ha, Katie. You can almost be funny when you want to. So, getting shot in the head, huh?"_

"_Shut up, DiNozzo! That report won't write itself."_

Tony sighed at the memory that his dream had brought up and at how ironic Kate words had been. Of course, back then neither of them could have imagined that only a few months later a very bullet was going to be shot right between the eyes of the ex Secret Service Agent.

As if to wash his thoughts away, Tony stepped into the shower and started whistling a tune. It had been 4 years since Kate's death, and even thought it had affected him deeply, he had moved on.

'Memories won't bring her back', he said to himself while pouring some shampoo into his hand.

Please, let me know what you think. If you notice any major grammatical mistake, let me know so I can fix it! Thanks.


	2. Chapter 2

Gibbs walked into the bullpen, only to find Ziva and McGee deeply asleep at their desks, and Tony intently staring at the screen of his computer.

He loudly cleared his throat to notify his agents of his presence. Both Ziva and McGee woke up at the noise and looked at Gibbs as waiting for instructions. Tony, on the other hand, kept his glance on the computer screen, and the SNL youtube video he was watching, and greeted Gibbs with a "Good morning, boss".

"Petty Officer Jones wrote down his confession," announced Gibbs. "The case is closed."

The three younger agents looked at him in disbelief wondering what he had done to get the confession out of that man so quickly, but none of them had the courage to ask. As Gibbs left the bullpen heading towards the director's office, Ziva was the first one to break the silence.

"So, what do we have to do with all of these background checks we pulled out yesterday night?"

"Hah, Zee-Vah!" grinned Tony. "We could make a nice collage out of them and cover this outrageously orange walls."

"Talking about wasting time…" sighted the Mossad Officer.

"Do you think we will get the rest of the weekend off?" asked McGee with a hopeful tone.

"Why, Probie? Got yourself a hot date for the annual Star Trek convention?" teased Tony.

"No, Tony. I was supposed to go to my friend's cabin to relax and go fishing. They left yesterday night, and if I leave soon I might be able to catch up with them."

"Well, McGeek, you still have one day and half to waste on such unsatisfying activities. You better gather your stuff and hurry."

"Tony, we not even know if Gibbs will let us leave" pointed out Ziva.

"Yes, that's true, but you know, as the Monty Python boys say, 'always look on the bright side of life', Ziva" said Tony winking at her.

"Tony, that quote doesn't even makes sense in this context. Something like 'think positively' would be appropriate, but what you said is not exactly useful to prove your point" replied McGee turning around to look at Tony.

"McGoo!" shouted Tony playfully making the younger agent jump in his chair, "you should know by now that Monty Python is always the answer, and as the senior field agent I have also to remind you that I am always right"

"Since when, Dinozzo?" said Gibbs entering the bullpen and heading to his desk.

"It was... just... you know" tried to explain Tony.

"You can leave," interrupted Gibbs looking at his three agents. "I will see you on Monday… Unless we get a new case before"

Tony, Ziva and McGee quickly hurried towards the elevator almost afraid that their boss might change his mind if it took them to long to leave and they were still in his eyesight. Once they felt safe into the four metallic walls, they relaxed.

"So, Ziva", flirted Tony, "my place or yours?"

"Well Tony, you can go wherever you feel like going as long as I am not there" said the woman getting closer to him and looking right into his eyes grinning slightly.

"Touche", smiled Tony defeated, "What about you, Probie, are you gonna go to your fishing camp?"

"Tony, it's not a fishing camp, it's a fishing weekend. And we're not sleeping in a tent, but in a very nice cabin" explained McGee.

"Same difference", yawned Tony purposely sounding annoyed.

As the elevator reached the parking level, the three agents headed to their cars greeting each others with some few short words, happy to get that one day and half for themselves.

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I know this chapter is very short and kind of superfluous. I just wanted to include all the characters and not just focus on Tony.

Chapter 3 will be up shortly.


	3. Chapter 3

What was left of the weekend went by pretty fast and on Monday, the team was back in the bullpen with a new case on their hand.

Gibbs had called his agents early in the morning, to let them know that an anonymous caller had reported the murder of woman to the MPDC that, after realizing that the victim was a midshipman at the Naval Academy, decided to call NCIS to hand over the case. The young victim, apparently in her early 20s, had been found dead outside of her parents' house in DC.

As the team parked the truck in front of the house, Gibbs felt that something was wrong.

"Boss," said Tony, "Ducky called and said they're going to be here in 10 minutes."

"Good," replied Gibbs looking at the surroundings trying to find anything that could be considered suspicious.

Ziva walked towards the lifeless body of the victim to analyze the scene followed by the three men.

"It's weird," she said arching her eyebrows. "This girl was stabbed several times."

"I wouldn't call that weird, Ziva. I would call it cruel," said Tony kneeling down next to the body.

"I was trying to say that the fact that nobody heard anything, is weird," continued Ziva. "Being stabbed is painful and I highly doubt the victim didn't make a sound during the attack. How comes none of the neighbors got suspicious with such noises in the middle of the night and called the police?"

Tony looked at the body and then at Ziva. She had a point.

"Maybe the killer dumped her here once she was already dead," said Gibbs.

"That means the killer knew his victim," said Ziva. "Otherwise he wouldn't have known where her parents lived."

Gibbs nodded as he watched Ducky walking towards them. Tony in the meanwhile was photographing the crime scene and McGee was examining the lawn to see if the killer had left anything behind. Ziva was sketching and trying to concentrate on memorizing every single detail of the crime scene.

"TOD, Ducky," asked Gibbs to the British ME.

"I estimate the TOD to be 0400. The COD is well obvious. The multiple stab wounds made the young lady bleed to death," sighed the doctor. "I would add," he continued "that this is not the place where the stabbing occurred. When the victim was brought here, she was already dead, as you can see by the lack of any major blood stains other than the ones on the victim's clothes."

After stating that, Ducky, helped by Palmer, took a body bag out of the truck and brought the body back to the NCIS HQ.

Due to the lack of any substantial proof in the crime scene, Gibbs was getting impatient. How could a killer be so clean and neat? There were no traces of what so ever. Not a good start.

"DiNozzo! McGee! Go and check if there's currently anybody in the house," ordered Gibbs to his two agents. "David, come with me. Lets ask the neighbors if they've seen anything unusual."

As Ziva followed Gibbs to the other side of the small residential street, Tony and McGee knocked on the door of the victim's house. Nobody seemed to be there.

"Should we break in?" asked McGee.

"Yes, Probie. Go to tell Gibbs we're getting in while I get this door open" said Tony.

McGee did as he was told. He started walking to the other side of the street. He has almost reached Gibbs and Ziva when a sudden violent explosion brought him to his knees. He coughed as he bent down on the grass trying to avoid the flying materials coming from the opposite side.

"DiNozzo!" shouted Gibbs as he watched horrified the flames that were now rounding the house.

He ran towards the burning house, and saw his senior field agent laying on the grass, just a few feet away from what was left of the house. He ran in his direction and checked Tony's pulse. He was still alive. Bruised, with several deep cuts, with a very week pulse, but still alive.

"Call an ambulance, McGee," Gibbs shouted to his agent who was still lying on the ground in a shocked state.

It didn't take long for an ambulance to arrive. After stabilizing the injured agent, the two paramedics put him on a gurney and drove to Bethesda Naval hospital, followed by Gibbs and what remained of the team.

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Please review!


	4. Chapter 4

Tony woke up feeling severely dizzy. He looked around trying to understand where he was, feeling the uncomfortable presence of numerous tubes coming in and out of his body. He took his time to study the situation. An IV was put into his left arm, and an oxygen mask was helping him breathing. He had a cast on his right leg and some sort of bandage on the right side of his head.

He remembered the explosion and panic ran through his veins: what about the rest of the team? As the panic grew, he started hyperventilating and the abnormal sound the machine started to produce, caught the attention of the nurses who promptly called Tony's physician.

A tall man in his late 40s walked through the door smiling.

"Good morning, Mr DiNozzo," he said with a friendly tone. "I am Dr Reyes."

Tony nodded slightly still trying to calm down and regain his coolness. He wanted to say something, but as he open his mouth, no sound came out from it.

"I imagine your throat is a little bit sore," continued the doctor gesturing at the nurse to bring him a glass of water.

Tony nodded again.

"Do you remember what happened, Mr DiNozzo?"

Tony nodded and reached for the glass of water that the nurse just brought him. After she pulled out his mask, he took a long sip of the liquid and spoke with a weak but understandable voice.

"How are the others? Were they injured?"

The doctor gave him a puzzled look.

"The explosion. Were the others injured by the explosion?" asked Tony, this time with a higher volume and with a better control over his voice.

"Mr DiNozzo, there was no explosion…" started Dr Reyes

"Listen, doctor," coughed Tony, "I perfectly remembered what happened. We were out on the field and I was trying to force a door. It was tampered, but I didn't realize until I've heard the final ticking of the bomb that was placed right underneath the handle on the other side of it. There was a big explosion, and that's the last thing I can remember."

"Mr DiNozzo, you just had a traumatic experience and you are suffering from a minor concussion. It's normal not to remember exactly what happened right before the accident. Just so you know, there was no explosion. You were involved in a car crash," calmly explained the doctor.

"What??" shouted Tony. "Maybe you're mistaking me for another patient. I am a federal agent."

The doctor and the nurse exchanged confused looks. They perfectly knew that the guy laying on the bed wasn't a federal agent. He was in fact one of the members of the board of the hospital where he was currently recovered; one of the biggest business men around town.

"We called your next of kin, Mr DiNozzo", announced the doctor trying to avoid being engaged in another discussion with his patience. "He's going to be here soon. If you need anything, just press the button there on your left. A nurse will come to assist you."

After saying that, the man left the room followed by the two nurses who were still exchanging puzzled looks.

After one hour or so, a man walked into Tony's room wearing a fake smile that was screaming something like 'I am here just because I have to, not because I really care'. He stood by Tony's bed and raised his left eyebrow as to mock the other man.

"So Anthony, you finally managed to crash that Aston Martin!" he said with a satisfied tone.

Tony looked at him trying to understand who he was. He looked nowhere near familiar and had an attitude that reminded Tony of his father. He decided to stay silent.

"Gee, man! You better say something instead of just staring. Business doesn't stop, so you better get back on your feet soon and come back to run the company!"

"Who are you?" managed to say Tony.

"Ha-ha, man! Listen, we can joke about this whole situation later. I have to run now. You know the meeting you were supposed to attend this afternoon? Well, considering you're in this condition I had to postpone it. It's starting in 1 hour, and I better get back there before the clients arrive. Get better, okay?"

That said, the man hurried towards the door. He stopped just before exiting the room.

"I called your lawyer. She's going to be here in a few hours after the doctors run some more tests."

With that, he left, leaving Tony perplexed and speechless.

After a few minutes the nameless man left, Tony found himself surrounded by doctors. They ran some tests and asked a few questions like 'what's your date of birth', 'what do you do for a living' and such. He didn't try to question their looks after hearing some of his answers. After the two odd encounters with Dr Reyes and with the nameless 'colleague' of his, he had no strength to get to the bottom of the matter; at least not today.

As the doctors left, he heard a noise of heels coming towards his room from down the hall. He closed his eyes pretending to be asleep, since he had no intention of carrying on with other awkward conversations. The woman in high heels entered the room and stopped by his bedside. He smelled her scent; it was a mix of something tropical and something spicy. He liked it.

The woman looked at him raising her right eyebrow and smiling slightly. He might have looked to be asleep, but she knew from his uneven breaths and the position of his body, that it was just an act. She shook her head letting out a small laugh. That was so Tony-like.

"You should know by now that I can read you like an open book," she grinned.

Tony kept his eyes closed, trying to remember where he had heard that voice before. He felt like he had heard it not long ago; maybe in a dream. Or in a movie. He didn't really remember.

"C'mon, Tony, stop pretending!" she said with an amused voice.

As she heard her voice for the second time, it hit him. That was Kate's voice!

"He opened his eyes slowly and slightly turned his head to where the voice was coming from. His eyes widened in shock and he let out a loud gasp.

"What?!" she asked raising an eyebrow.

"K-Kate?" he asked with a trembling voice.

"Duh!" she shouted sarcastically rolling her eyes. "Mind to tell me what happened? I got a very angry call from Nathan saying that you choose this very day to ruin his career, screw up the deal of the century and killing yourself driving your brand new and beloeved car into a few blocks of cements!"

"Huh?" asked Tony in disbelief.

"Don't huh me, Tony! Elaborate a complete sentence and tell me what the hell happened!" she said with a serious tone looking right into his eyes. "Were you trying to kill yourself?"

"What?!" he exclaimed in disbelief. "No way. No, no!"

"Okay, so what happened?" she asked for a second time.

"Am I dead?" asked Tony purposely changing the topic since he didn't know how to answer.

She felt the slight hint of fear in his voice and shook her head at his question.

"No, Tony. You are very much alive," she replied with a softer voice.

"So are you!" he exclaimed rising his waist from the bed. "Where the hell I am and who the hell are you?"

"Oh, oh, calm down big boy!" she exclaimed pushing him back on the bed.

"You're supposed to be dead!" he shouted raising his voice.

"Wishful thinking, Tony." She scoffed. "So, tell me what the hell happened before I let the doctors bring you to the psych yard like they were planning on doing before I showed up."

"What's the point in telling you? Everybody here seem to think I have gone insane! I am sure you're going to have the same reaction and are not even going to believe me," he started.

"Try me, DiNozzo."

"Okay. Well, I am not this Tony DiNozzo," he stated waiting for her reaction. She didn't say anything so he decided to keep going.

"See, this morning I was working on the field with the team. Gibbs sent me and Probie to check if there was someone in the house in front of which our victim's body was dumped. I knocked on the door but nobody answered. I told McGee that I was going to force our way into the house and I sent him to tell Gibbs. When he left I started working with the lock and after a few seconds I realized there was a bomb on the other side. I tried to run away, but it was too late. The whole house was blown up an I got caught in the explosion. Then I woke up and here I was, surrounded by people telling me that I had a car crash and looking at me like I was insane!" he finished with a sigh. "Oh, and by the way, you are dead."

Kate ran her right hand through her hair, taking a deep breath.

"I am dead?" she asked, her voice oozing with fear.

"Well, I thought you were until… 10 minutes ago!"

Kate's gaze dropped to the ground. She felt tears threatening to fall down, but she pulled them back biting the inside of her mouth.

"What? What's going on? Give me an explanation!" asked Tony with anger not noticing the effect his previous words had on the woman.

"Tony…" she started with a shaky voice, "What happened to me? Why am I dead?"

"I think with this question you just got yourself a free trip to psych yard with me!"

"No, seriously. Tell me what happened to me in… your world" she said trying to sound more curious than worried.

"Well, there was this sniper, Ari. He was a double agent and he wanted to make Gibbs suffer. He came after us while we were trying to prevent a terrorism act and shot you between your eyes."

She automatically brought a hand up to her forehead and bit her lip. She understood what was going on, and she understood who that person really was.

"It's you…" she whispered. "How did you get here? Oh, it must have been because of the explosion occurred in your universe and the car crash that occurred here," she continued voicing her thoughts out loud unconsciously.

"What?" he asked confusedly.

She answered by hugging him tighly.

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	5. Chapter 5

R&R, please.

* * *

Gibbs looked at his agent laying on the hospital bed. He was attached to a life support machine that was helping him breathing, since his body couldn't manage doing it by itself. His upper arm was severely burned and his right leg was bandaged to cover the many stitches that had been used to close the deep wound caused by some sharp material that had blown up during the explosion.

He had been like that for 4 days already. He was in a coma but he had good chances of waking up soon, according to his doctors. His vitals were good. No internal injuries or irreparable damages. It was just a matter of waiting.

Gibbs sighed. He felt bad about leaving his agent in that state by himself, but he needed to keep investigating on the case and he also needed his other two agents with him. He knew that Ziva would have rather stayed by Tony's bed to make sure to catch any possible improvement instead of trying to investigate on a case that seemed to lead nowhere. It had been 4 days and still no progress. Not with the case and not with the condition of his agent. He needed to find something to start with; it was personal. One of his agents was injured and he wanted to catch the bastard who did that to him as soon as possible.

"You better be awake next time I visit you, DiNozzo," he said walking out of the room.

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On a parallel universe, things weren't much easier.

"Okay, so can you explain me another time?" asked Tony with a very confuse look.

"Tony, I already told you three times. I can't spend my day repeating the same things over and over again to you! I have to work!" said Kate with an impatient tone.

"Last time. I just need to get this thing right." He said focusing his eyes on Kate.

"Argh! Okay. I don't know why it works like this, but here's the deal. There are parallel universes. There's a 'you' and there's a 'me' in each of them. We are not meant to get to know this, but something occurs when in two different universes the same person is faced with a life or death situation. I can't explain it scientifically, but the thing is that when two bodies in two different universes go through an unbearable amount of physical or psychological distress in both worlds in the exact same moment, they switch places. The Tony in this universe had a car crash and at the same time, in 'your' universe you were blown up in the air by a bomb. Get it?"

"I guess…" said Tony still kind of confused. "What happened to you?"

"Well; according to what you told me before, I was shot in one universe and well, according to what I've been told when I woke up confused in a hospital room 4 years ago, I was shot in this universe too; nothing too bad, though. It was a through-through shot in my shoulder. I couldn't hold a gun for 10 months after that. Not that my job required it, but still…"

Tony nodded finally putting the pieces of this very creative puzzle together.

"How comes we know each other in this universe?" Tony asked with a subtle flirtatious tone.

Kate smiled. It was a long time that she didn't see such a playful side of Tony. The Tony she got to know in the last four years was a serious and rarely playful person. He was a workaholic and didn't seem to have any strong feelings towards anybody or anything but the company he owned.

"The firm I work for is the one that legally represents your company. I am a lawyer," she explained him.

"How did you deal with all of this by yourself? Have you seen other people you used to know in the other universe? Have you missed us?" Tony asked her anxious to have answers. He couldn't imagine waking up with a life that wasn't his own and having no one to explain what was going on.

"It was hard to understand at the beginning. I pretended I had a temporary amnesia and played along. I gathered information and used them to shape my old life into the new one. Then I met this old man who told me how things worked. It was rather shocking, but I got used to it; I got used to see people from my old life not having any idea of who I was and I got used to the looks that I got when I said something that the other me wouldn't have probably said, because honestly this Kate is not a very well liked person" she said shrugging her shoulders. "Of course I missed you guys and my old life, but there's nothing I can do about it. I think there might be very few possibilities to reverse this kind of situation to begin with, but since you informed me that I am dead in the other universe, I don't think that is even an option to consider for me…"

"Hey," said Tony softly "I know you might no remember this since it's been so long… but a few nights ago I dreamed of a conversation we had."

"I remember. You asked me if I believed in parallel universes," Kate smiled. "I guess you had a point."

"Can I hug you?" asked Tony a little embarrassed about his strange request.

"Huh?" asked Kate raising an eyebrow suspiciously.

"I haven't seen you for years and I thought you were dead. I mean you did die. At least you did back there. You know, in the other universe where we're federal…"

He was interrupted by two strong arms pulling him into a warm embrace.

"I missed you so much, Tony. I not even know I would have ever been able to miss you, but this whole parallel universe thing made me rethink that."

He smiled and hugged her back, happy to see her again.


	6. Chapter 6

The phone on Gibbs' desk started ringing.

"Gibbs," said the agent.

A pause followed.

"We're on our way."

Ziva looked at her boss, who was now on his way to the elevator. She decided to follow him and so did McGee. Once they were inside, Gibbs simply stated, "Tony woke up."

McGee pulled out his cell phone to call Abby and tell her the good news, while Ziva ran a hand through her hair and let out a deep breath, relieved by what her boss just said.

Meanwhile, at the hospital, Tony wasn't so pleased. People around him kept talking about an explosion and his business partner and his lawyer had yet to show up. He was now breathing on his own, but the pounding headache was still there regardless of the painkillers that he was popping like candies. He looked around with a confused expression; his throat was too sore for him to speak. Not that he had anything to say to those newbies that were apparently his doctors, anyway. He would have let his assistant deal with all of this; he didn't have the time to explain or to listen to someone else's explanations.

As he was lost in his thoughts, three people suddenly entered the hospital room. He looked at them. They weren't wearing a lab coat or a pair of scrubs, so they were definitely not doctors or nurses. Their clothes were too casual to make them lawyers. He concluded that they could only be cops.

"Tony…" started the only woman who was standing between the two men, "how are you feeling?"

He cleared his throat and took a sip of water from the glass that the nurses left on his bedside table.

"Are you cops?" he asked with a suspicious look.

The youngest man looked puzzled at the older one. Tony assumed by that behavior that the silver haired man was the boss.

The woman had a shocked expression. He could have sworn she had also looked hurt for a couple of seconds, but that emotion had quickly vanished from her face.

"DiNozzo," said the oldest of the three people standing there, "you don't know who we are?"

"Should I?" answered Tony with a condescending tone.

"If this is a joke, Tony, I swear I'm gonna kick your ass!" said the woman getting closer to his bed.

"Okay, I am not really familiar with this hospital policy but I am pretty sure that it doesn't allow strangers to harass patients who are recovering," said Tony reaching out to grab the newspaper that was on the chair next to his bed, opening it to a random page and starting to read it as saying to the unwanted visitors that they were free to go.

"Hey!" snapped the woman, "we were very worried about you. This is not funny!"

"Ziva…" started the youngest man, "I don't think he's joking. He might be experiencing some sort of memory loss. You've heard the doctor. He said it's common with that kind of trauma…"

"Hey! Hey!" yelled Tony from his bed, "I am not suffering from amnesia. I perfectly remember what happened and I perfectly know who I am. Now, if you don't mind, I would really like to talk to my lawyer. I assume you must be cops and if I have to deal with you guys I definitely want my lawyer to be here."

That said, he returned to his newspaper.

"Who's your lawyer?" asked the older man.

"Caitlin Morgan Todd of Harrison & Perrera. Whom am I talking to?" said Tony coldly.

"Special Agent Gibbs, Mr. DiNozzo," answered the man with a tone that was as cold as his.

"Boss," whispered the younger agent to the one named Gibbs "I think his situation might be worst than we thought…

Gibbs nodded slightly and headed to the door followed by the other two.

"Gibbs", said Ziva once they were out of the room "he's gonna get his memory back, right?"

Gibbs didn't answer. He wasn't sure about what to say. The doctor didn't mention anything about the memory loss. All the tests were fine and there were no sign of damage other than the burns and the cuts. He sighed and turned to his younger agents.

"Ziva, you stay here at the hospital with Tony. McGee, check if there is a lawyer by the name of Caitlin Todd," ordered Gibbs.

"Boss, I think that his minds is just playing tricks… I mean, Caitlin Todd? This cannot be a coincidence," replied McGee with a concerned voice.

"McGee, just do it. I know this is not a coincidence, but I want to know why he can't remember who we are, but he knows who Kate is."

Ziva looked confused.

"Kate?" she asked looking at the two men.

"Kate Toss, Ziva. The agent that you replaced…" explained McGee not knowing how else to describe his former teammate.

"Oh…!" exclaimed Ziva, "agent Todd. Yeah, sure…"

As the two men left, she stood outside Tony's room, not sure if going back in or just stay outside, leaving him alone. She looked down almost feeling betrayed. She wondered what was going on and why her partner didn't seem to have any idea of who she was. It bothered her that he mentioned Kate's name. Why did he remember Kate but not her or the rest of the team? She felt ashamed for thinking that and mentally slapped herself. She took a deep breath and gently knocked on the door to get back into Tony's room.

"What now?" asked Tony annoyed.

"Tell me who you are," she simply said.

Tony took a deep breath. He knew he had to talk to someone about the weird situation he was in, and considering they were all strangers to him, that woman might have been as good as anyone else. He decided to open up with her. Something in her eyes told him she cared about him.

In the meanwhile, another Tony DiNozzo was having problems of his own trying to convince the doctor to release him from the hospital in which he had been staying for the past week.

"Mr DiNozzo, I don't advise you leaving the hospital so soon after such a car crash," said the doctor for the sixth time.

"Yes, I remember you saying that a couple of times already, but really," said Tony trying to sound as convincing as possible "I am really doing fine! I would heal faster if I could just go home."

The doctor shook his head in disagreement but he eventually gave up and signed the documents to discharge his patient.

"You are going to need someone to take care of you for a while," he recommended.

Tony nodded and smiled. As the doctor walked out of the room, he took his BlackBerry and dialed Kate's number.

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Please, R&R


	7. Chapter 7

I am not so sure about how this chapter turned out. Let me know what you guys think...

R&R

* * *

Kate parked her Porsche in front of the big house situated in the most exclusive residential area of the city. She rolled her eyes thinking that such a huge house was just a waste for only one person. The valet came towards her and she handed him her keys, rolling her eyes once another time watching the guy parking her car just 3 feet away further from where she originally parked it. Tony really had too much money on his hands. She knocked on the ridiculously big and overly decorated white door sighing loudly.

It took a while for Tony to reach the door from the kitchen. He wasn't the good going around with crutches.

"I am impressed you opened the door yourself. I was expecting a butler to make his appearance and take my coat," she said rolling her eyes for the third time in less than 5 minutes.

"Good morning to you too, Katie!" he grinned, "I am happy to see that being a lawyer didn't change your attitude."

"What do you need, Dinozzo?" she questioned.

"DiNozzo? I thought we were on first names basis…" he said playfully smiling at her and kissing on her cheek.

"Well, _Tony_," she said emphasizing the man's first name with a sarcastic tone, but not able to hide the smile that plastered on her face as a reaction to him smooching her on the cheek, "can you please tell me the reason why you called me on a Sunday morning and asked me to come by your house?"

"Well, you know… Considering you're the only person who knows who I really am and what I am going through, I was kinda hoping you could help me out dealing with this whole thing. I have to run a huge company and I know nothing about business," he said scratching his head.

"I am pretty sure you can get 'Business for dummies' at any bookstore," she stated. "As for helping you out settling into your life… Well, we are not that close, you know? I don't know much about you. I mean we hang out some time, but that's about it. It's mostly about work."

"Just work? Not benefits?" he asked looking at her with a flirty expression on his face.

She rolled her eyes but she couldn't hide the small smile forming on her lips. She was used to serious Tony, not flirty Tony.

"So what do you know about me?" he asked, this time a little more seriously.

"Well, you are a professional, cold heartless bastard, who lives to make money and hardly cares about other people," Kate said enjoying the shocked expression on Tony's face as she spoke.

"Geez, Kate. I am still recovering from a car crash. Mind to be a little more gentle with your words?"

"Well, you asked me what I know, right? Anyway… You've been married twice; both marriages ended up in divorces. No kids; at least none that you know of," she continued.

"Okay, okay; enough about me. What about you? Who are you?" Tony asked sick of hearing what an awful person his alter ego was.

"I am a lawyer, I am a workaholic, married at 25; divorced at 28. No kids; no pets; no boyfriend; no contact with my family; almost no friends," she said as she was reading a description out of a book.

"Why you're the only person I have saved by first name on my cell phone's contact list?" he asked.

"I guess I am the closest thing to a friend that you have," she answered shrugging her shoulders; "we are pretty lonely people".

Tony smiled and nodded. It was weird not to know who he was, but he was also exciting; like going undercover.

He looked at Kate and noticed how different she was from the woman he used to know and work with. She was slimmer and her hair was longer and darker. Her look was very sophisticated and slightly less conservative than what it used to be. He noticed how beautiful she looked and felt the urge to hug her as to make sure she was really there. For some reason, seeing her again made him feel good. Even though he moved on with his life after her death, he kind of felt like he had unfinished business with her. Without noticing it, he placed his hand on Kate's drawing imaginary circles on it with his thumb. She didn't pull away, but she turned to look at him, her eyes questioning his gesture.

"Sorry," he said registering her shocked look and lifting his hand to his pocket to get his phone.

Kate hesitated. She wasn't going to deny that in the past 3 years, in that universe, she had had similar moments with the 'other' Tony, but she knew it wasn't anything but a simple craving for human contact. She never felt anything when these kinds of things had happened in the past and she was sure he didn't either, but again, this wasn't the same man. She looked at him as he pretended to be reading something very important on the screen of his phone. The fact that he was embarrassed made her smile; it was cute. She decided to take the risk, lifted her hand from the couch they were sitting on and rested it on Tony's smiling at him, as he turned around in surprise.

He placed his phone on the table briefly interrupting the contact between him and Kate and then grabbed her hand, intertwining her fingers with his. She gave him a small squeeze and they eyes met.

"Tony…" she started with a slight hint of confusion in her voice. "What… what…"

She couldn't really bring herself to ask what she actually meant to ask. She wanted to ask him what the hell was going on, and why her heart started racing as soon as their hands touched. She wanted to ask him what was the matter with him and why he was doing whatever it was that he was doing, to her. That was Tony, the guy who in another universe used to be her work partner, the guy she hadn't seen for over 4 years, the guy who she couldn't spend an hour with, without going crazy. What the hell was wrong with her?!

"Kate," Tony whispered into her ear, "I really like you, I think."

Kate looked at him and smiled.

"Are we back in high school, DiNozzo?" she asked playfully.

Tony smiled embarrassed, scratching his head with his free hand. He didn't know how to explain to her that he had liked her for a while and that her sudden death kind of prevented him to do anything about it. He reckoned that the situation he was in had probably been the oddest one he had ever found himself into. Parallel universes… He would have never imagined anything like that even in his most vivid fantasies!

"It's just that you were there one day and then gone the next and it hurt, you know?" he said trying not to sound too sentimental, "I know you weren't planning on dying just like that, but you did it, and that forced everybody to move on and live a life without you in it. And we _had to_ move on, because we knew you were not going to come back ever again! You know how hard was that, how that felt?!"

He felt bad by using that almost accusatory tone, but he couldn't help it. She died on them. She went away with no chances for him to tell her goodbye. He couldn't exactly remember what were the last words he said to her, but he knew for sure that they were not the ones he would have told her if he knew that was it. He never had the chance to get the proper closure with her, and for some reason even years after her death, he couldn't help but blaming her for him not being able to place a period. No matter how dysfunctional their undefined type of relationship was he really did care. And now that he was seeing her again, he felt like this wave of repressed feelings was going to drown him if they didn't find a way out of his head.

Kate shifted closer to him and rested her head on his shoulder, wanting to feel his presence. It was stupid, but that was all she had. He was everything that linked her with her previous life and she wanted to make sure that he was just right there, next to her, and not going anywhere anytime soon.

"You know, it's been years already, but it feels like yesterday," she said softly, "you catching the plague, the raid on the roof and then waking up somewhere totally new living a life that wasn't mine."

She spoke with such a sad voice that it broke his heart.

"I am sorry I never took the time to tell you that I cared. I really did care about you, Tony," she whispered sadly "I didn't want to go without you knowing that, but… I didn't really had a say."

He squeezed her hand imagining how powerless she felt in such a twisted turning of the events.

"Kate, if I only had known that it was all going to end that day on the roof, I would have done… something. Anything! It tortured me for so long. You know, the fact that I had let you go without telling you. And I not even know what I was really supposed to tell you!" Tony confusedly blabbed.

Kate sat there in silence. She felt tears threatening to fall, but she bit her lower lip and pulled them back.

Tony thought it was almost painful to see her looking so powerless. He turned to her and kissed her softly on her head, smelling her scent and getting almost hypnotized by it.

She felt shivers running down her spine at his sweet display of affection. She turned to face him and allowed a tear to fall down.

"I am sorry," she managed to whisper.

He shook his head and softly captured her lips with his, not able to keep it together any longer. It was sweet and heartfelt. It was worth more than thousands explanations. It felt like their lives were depending on that moment of shared affection that they had been longing for.

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R&R! :)


	8. Chapter 8

I am finding it hard to write Ziva's character, but I want to include her, since she's a major part of the show. Please, let me know what you think!

R&R

* * *

Ziva sat by Tony's bedside. She was still trying to process the information the man laying on the bed had shared with her during the last 3 days that she had been visiting him. She knew it was possible to make up such a detailed and crazy story –she had see people lying during interrogations, after all, but she could also see that the man wasn't lying. He wasn't Tony. At least he wasn't the Tony she knew. She couldn't help but wonder where the hell the 'real' one was, but the more she thought about it, the more her answers became improbable. She was trained to believe facts, not suppositions, but this time she was choosing to believe the unbelievable.

Tony had asked her about the person he was sharing his identity with. He wanted to know who the man everybody confused him with, was. That girl by his bedside obviously cared deeply about that man, even if she liked to mask her feelings with sarcasm and scoffs. He tried to remember when was the last time someone showed real affection to him. The fact that he couldn't remember made him feel sad. He had two ex wives, but what he felt for both of them wasn't as nearly deep as what he should have felt for someone who was supposed to be his life companion. He didn't have close friends and his struggles to maintain any sort of relationship with his father weren't turning out the way he hoped. The closest people to him were his business partner and his lawyer. He wasn't even sure if his business partner, Nathan, was genuinely interested in his well being; maybe he just pretended to care because, no matter how hard he tried to prove himself that they were equals, he was still his boss.

"Hey," said Ziva interrupting his thoughts, "if what you're saying it's true, does it mean there's some sort of parallel universe out there where there's another you and there's another me?"

Tony shrugged his shoulders not sure about what to answer her. He didn't really know what was going on. He was trying to find an explanation as well, but he hadn't been able to come up with anything believable so far.

"So what are you going to do with Gibbs and your job here?" asked Ziva slightly concerned.

"Ziva, being a cop is not my job. I am a business man," he stated looking at the woman.

"Well, not here," she pointed out, "or you believe everybody is going to buy your story?"

"You did buy it, so why shouldn't other people buy it as well?" he asked matter-of-factly.

Ziva shook her head.

"Because I am choosing to believe you. Other people might not be that compassionate," she said heading towards the door.

"Are you leaving?" he asked.

"Do you want me to stay?" she asked with a flirty tone walking back to his bedside.

Tony smiled at her sassiness. He wasn't the playful type of guy. He'd rather go straight to the point instead of endlessly wandering around it but he felt like this woman was pushing his buttons in a way that very few people had been able to during his life. He thought about Kate Todd. That was another woman who could make him laugh like nothing else mattered one second and make him mad the other. Thinking about her, he also thought about the reaction of the three agents when he had mentioned her name.

"Do you know Kate Todd?" he questioned Ziva.

She nodded, looking a little uncertain about her answer.

"Where is she? Am I friend with her here too?" he asked curious.

"I guess you used to be friends," Ziva said.

"Used to?" he asked raising an eyebrow, "Wait, don't tell me I married her and got divorced! That would be so me!" he muttered more to himself than to Ziva.

"You guys weren't married," she explained "she was your partner at NCIS."

"I thought you were", he said questioning.

"I've been your partner for the past 4 years, after Kate was killed in action," she finished looking at him to study his reaction.

"She's dead?" he asked shocked.

Ziva nodded once again.

Tony didn't really know what to say. In his mind Kate was very much alive. He could remember her just a few days before being mad at him about a signature that he apparently placed in the wrong line, making the document she so meticulously wrote, null.

He liked Kate. Sometimes he even wondered if they could have made a good couple, but he grew to realize in the last four years, that there was something about that woman that he couldn't handle. She was just too much for his serious and collected personality.

"I am sorry," said Ziva not knowing what else to say.

"Life sucks, shit happens, right?" saying Tony trying to sound casual about it, but failing miserably.

Ziva shrugged her shoulders and weakly smiled at him.

"You are pretty," said Tony changing topic trying to be as bold as the woman in front of him, "how comes we weren't going out?"

Ziva laughed getting closer to him and placing a playful kiss on his cheek.

"Get some rest, Tony," she said before walking out of his room, still laughing at his question.

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R&R!


	9. Chapter 9

_Happy New Year, everybody! I hope you'll enjoy this chapter. I wrote it a while ago on plane between Italy and the US. Let me know what you think! _

R&R!

* * *

Tony walked as fast as he could down the hallway. It had been three days since he regained the fully functionality of his leg and he was glad he could finally walk freely without those stupid crutches. He was mad, though. Mad at Kate Todd. He almost ran towards the door with her name on it and ignored the warnings of her secretary who was trying to prevent him from disturbing her boss. He opened the door with anger and slammed it shut.

Kate's eyes widened in shock.

"Larry, I'll call you back. I am.. hmm.. facing a situation here right now," she muttered into her phone, hanging it up.

She looked at Tony in disbelief trying to form a coherent sentence to explain her anger towards him.

"What's wrong with you?!" he asked almost yelling.

"What?! What the hell are you talking about?" she replied yelling as well, "you just came into my office like a psycho and you have the courage to ask me that?! What the hell is wrong with _you_!"

Tony got closer to her desk, angrily, his hands grasping its edges.

"You've been ignoring me for the past two weeks!" he said slamming his hand on her desk.

"I had not," she replied coldly.

"Oh, c'mon! Have you returned any of my calls? Have you even wondered how I was after they took the damn cast off my leg?" he snapped.

"Listen," she said trying to sound calm, "as you can see I am very busy right now."

"With what?" he asked this time controlling his voice "trying to find excuses to keep avoiding me?"

"No," she answered pointing at all the files piled on her desk, "with this."

Tony sighed and sat down in one of the chairs across her.

"Kate, listen, I don't want it to be awkward between us," he said with a serious tone, "if it's because of the kiss, well, lets talk about it!"

Kate shook her head and took a sip of water from the bottle on her desk.

"Tony, it's fine," she sighed, "it's not about the kiss, okay?"

"Can we talk about it, then?" he questioned.

"About what?" she questioned him back.

"That kiss," he answered with an almost exasperated tone.

"What's there to talk about?" she faltered through, suddenly turning her focus on a random file on her desk.

"God, Kate! Wasn't your death enough to make you realize that there's not enough time to make pride blind you?" he yelled.

"Well, technically I didn't die," she angrily commented.

"You know what, Kate… never mind," he shook his head and turned around walking towards the door "I was kinda hoping you had learned the lesson."

Kate looked at him leaving the room and bit her lip. She wished she was strong enough to stop him; she wanted to tell him not to go, but she couldn't manage to make the words come out of her mouth. She just stayed there, swallowed hard and pretended to get back to work, trying to pull back the tears but failing miserably. She wanted to give him a chance, but she was so stupidly proud and scared. He was Tony: he was like a train going hundred miles an hour; and she was Kate: she played it safe and she never let her guard down.

Tony walked back to the parking structure across the street from Kate's office and got into his car. He didn't know what to think or what to do. He didn't really know what had just happened with Kate; he really thought they had been given a second chance from some powerful force that ruled the universe -_universes_- he mentally corrected himself, but Kate didn't seem to agree. He was sure that kiss meant something and he just couldn't let it go. If all the movies he watched were right, things did happen for a reason. He took his head in his hands and screamed. She was so stubborn! In a split of second, he decided not to give up and got out of the brand new car he had bought to replace the one his alter ego crashed just a few weeks ago, determined to finally open her eyes.

For the second time that day, he walked down the hall and got back into Kate's office. He saw her there, sitting behind her desk, her face strained with tears.

As she saw him again, looking at her with an unreadable look on his face, she quickly turned around to wipe the tears that were incessantly falling from her hazel eyes. She took a deep breath trying to mask her emotional breakdown and then turned around again.

"I still have that drawing," he murmured looking straight into her eyes.

She gave him a questioning look.

"The one that was in your sketchpad," he explained off her look, "Ziva found it after you were gone in your bottom drawer. She gave it to Gibbs and he thought that you would have wanted me to have that. You know, that portrait you made of me…"

She silently nodded and mentally took note of asking him who the hell was Ziva later, and her gaze dropped on her desk. She couldn't manage to look into his eyes; she was afraid he could read all the emotions that were going through her mind in that moment.

"Listen, Kate," he started, "I don't know why in this world we have been given a second chance, but it happened in the most mysterious way possible, probably. But here we are, and I know this is just not a coincidence. We were trained not to believe in coincidences!"

He sighed at her not responding, but decided to keep going, since there was no way he could back off now, anyway.

"I understand that this is all complicated, impossible to understand, insane at some level, but fuck that! I want to be with you. For real! Just give me a chance, please!" he said with a voice that oozed hopes.

She finally looked at him and say love and concern in his eyes. She bit her bottom lip, scared of taking a chance on him, but even more scared not to.

"Tony…" she whispered, "you can't imagine how much I wish I had the strength to take a chance on… us. But I can't. You don't belong in this universe, you have to go back, sooner or later, and if I get too involved, I don't think I could stand it."

"It's too late! I am already too involved! And who says that I have to go back to the other universe?" Tony almost yelled, "and even if I will, at least we will had given this a chance, because honestly, I would never forgive myself for not giving it a try."

He studied her reaction. He saw that she was internally debating on what to do. She looked beautiful. Beautiful and vulnerable. He walked around the desk and kneed beside her, spinning her chair around so she was facing him.

"Kate, don't push me away," he murmured.

That was all it took for her to make her decision, as she pulled him in crashing her lips on his and running her hands through his hair.

He stood there shocked for a split of second, but then responded to the kiss, smiling and feeling shivers going down his spine as her lips parted and she let him deepen the kiss.

As they broke apart to breath, Tony let his forehead rest on hers and cupped her face with his hands.

"I am never going to leave," he whispered.

And she chose to believe him, letting her heart winning that round against her brain. She smiled and pulled him in for another kiss.

"Who the hell is Ziva?" she asked breaking the kiss with a suspicius tone.

Tony smiled and shook his head.

"She's this great agent who replaced this very smart, beautiful and capable agent who used to be my partner..." he teased.

"So she's my repleacement," she inquired almost upset about it.

"You could say that," he replied grabbing her hands and looking straight into her eyes.

"Is she pretty?" she questioned.

"Very pretty," he answered ignoring her glare, "but she's not you."

"Nice save, DiNozzo" she laughed.

He laughed with her and pulled her into another kiss, feeling eternally grateful to whomever or whatever granted him that very moment.

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Again, R&R! :)

I might edit this chapter later. There's something that doesn't convince me 100%...


	10. Chapter 10

_This chapter turned out longer than I intended. Let me know what you think!_

_Oh, thanks for the reviews! I am enjoying them a lot. ;)_

R&R

* * *

Abby nervously stood outside Tony's room, still not sure on what to do. Sure he was one of her best friends, but she didn't think she would have been able to face the fact that he couldn't remember her at all.

After the stories she had heard from Gibbs, Ziva and McGee, she knew that Tony had absolutely no cognition of the life he had lived until the month before. She surely was happy he was still alive, but she still felt betrayed by him in some way. His lost of all his memories, made her feel like he died; and she couldn't stand another death, even if not a 'proper' death. It had been hard enough to deal with Kate's and she wasn't sure she wanted to go through that again. If Tony didn't remember her, she might have as well consider him dead. After all that man laying on the bed wasn't even Tony. Sure as hell he looked like him, but he wasn't the real thing, just a very convincing look-a-like.

It had been over one month since the bomb explosion, and Anthony DiNozzo had yet to be discharged from the hospital. His severe burns had required a close observation from the medical team, and no matter how many times he had said that he was fine and ready to go home, after his confused talk that had brought to a diagnosis of a temporary memory loss, Gibbs had agreed with the doctor to keep his agent in the hospital for a little longer.

Gibbs walked down the hall and stopped beside the goth forensic scientist who was standing there, not moving a muscle.

"You should go in," he told her with a sympathetic voice.

"Gibbs, that man is not Tony," she sadly replied. "He might look like him, but he has no memories. He's like… a blank CD."

"Abby, Tony is your friend," Gibbs explained to the woman with a soft tone that was very un-Gibbs, "don't do this, because you might regret it. Now go in and talk to him."

She nodded slightly, took a deep breath and timidly knocked on the door.

"Come in," said Tony from the other side.

She walked in, and looked at the man in the bed. A part of her wanted to run to him and hug him tightly, but another one, kept telling her that the man only bear the face of the man she knew. She slowly approached his bedside with a small smile.

"Hey," she managed to say in a weak whisper that was barely hearable.

"Hey," he answered a little embarrassed.

"So…" she tried to say something, but no words came to mind. She wanted to kick Gibbs so badly for making her go into that room.

"Are you Abby?" he asked with a tone that let intend that he already knew the answer to that question.

Abby nodded and sat down on a chair by the end of the bed.

"I suppose Ziva told you I was coming," she assumed.

"Actually, not," he replied thinking about how he did in fact knew that the woman's name was Abby, "I think once, my friend, well my lawyer actually, Kate Todd mentioned something about this friend of her working at NCIS and being a forensic scientist who also happened to be a goth. I thought she was kidding, you know? She's not the type of woman who has goth friends – no offense," he added noticing her look "do you know her?"

Abby, again didn't really know what to tell the man. She was also pretty shocked about him mentioning Kate. Nobody had told her that he remembered Kate. Of course the part where he said Kate was his lawyer kind of confused her, but at the same time it gave her some shadow of hope.

"I am sorry," apologized Tony with a concerned look, "I shouldn't have mentioned Kate."

"Why?" questioned Abby, for the first time curious to know more about that stranger.

"Well you know, everybody makes this weird face every time I mention her name," he explained, "I guess it has to do with the fact that... she's not longer here," he said intentionally picking words that described the situation nicely.

Abby studied the face of the man. He looked sad.

"How do you even know Kate?" she asked suspiciously.

Tony's lips curved into a small smile like he was reminiscing something.

"We went to the same college," he simply stated.

Abby smiled and decided to trust that man a little bit more. She felt like he wasn't lying.

"Tell me more about her," she asked like a kid who wants to hear one more bedtime story.

"Well, she was a freshman and I was a sophomore – I took one year off, right after school to travel," he almost justified himself, "we didn't really click right away, but we were hanging out with the same people. She was dating my buddy Matt and it was kind of an on and off relationship. He was a dick, you know? But she liked the challenge."

Abby smiled. Kate did like challenges and wasn't too good at relationships. She wondered how different the Kate he knew was from the one that used to be her best friend.

"We graduated and we both went to grad school to Harvard. She got into law school and I got my MBA," he continued. "She married Matt and I got married as well. We didn't really keep in touch, but then after a few years we met again."

"How?" asked Abby more and more intrigued by his story.

"Well, I was helping my father running his company in Bridgeport when he decided to give me a promotion as the head of one of his major affiliates in DC," he explained. "As I got there, I found out that she was the lawyer that her firm had assigned to our company."

"How is she like? He she still married? Are you guys friends?" she inquired excitedly.

Tony smiled seeing how much that woman cared about Kate. She wanted to make sure she was okay through his words, since she couldn't make sure herself. It was heartwarming, but it was also painful to witness such a concern that Kate wasn't able to see or feel anymore.

"You know, when I met her again, six years ago, she had changed a lot," he replied, "she was going through a divorce and she was all about her job. But so was I. We kind of bonded over the fact that we were good at working but crappy when it came to relationships."

He shrugged his shoulders and Abby almost pouted at hearing that Kate hadn't the life she had wished for her.

"However," continued Tony, "something happened about four years ago. She was at the bank for some reason and these harmed guys broke in for a robbery. Of course she didn't do what they asked her to do, which was very simple, you know? She just had to sit silently. But she didn't. She called 911 instead, and as the guy saw that, he shot her in the shoulder. She was hospitalized for quite a while but when she got out of the hospital she seemed a totally different person."

Abby looked at Tony contemplating what he had just said.

"You said she got shot four years ago, right?" she asked.

"Yes, that's correct," he nodded not sure of what she was trying to get out of the story he had just said.

"Do you happen to remember what day it was? Or what month at least?" she quested as she was interrogating him.

"It was April, I think," Tony said confused.

"In what ways did she change?" Abby inquired looking Tony straight in the eyes.

"Well, she had a very bad memory loss and I remember her complaining about her injury saying that she wouldn't have been able to hold a gun for a while, which was funny, because she didn't even know how to shoot, you know?" he said remembering the odd conversation he had with her the day after she was discharged from the hospital.

"She also seemed more confident and sassier and well, there's a thing I will always remember," he laughed.

"What's that?" curiously asked the goth.

"I asked her to come to my office to review a contract and well, she seemed a little bit off, like she didn't know what she was really supposed to do and when I teased her about it, telling her that she was acting like a newbie, she came closer to me and gave me a head slap. And I just stood there shocked, because well, it hurt and also because I didn't think she had that much strength. She was the kinda woman who wouldn't have ever hit anybody, not even for self-defense probably, and there she was slapping my head! I laughed about it for days, I just couldn't believe she had done that! A head slap! Who the hell does that?!" he finished with a small grin.

Abby let out a loud laugh. Yes, that was the Kate she knew! At that thought, she froze. She tried to put all the pieces together.

"Tony," she said calling him by first name for the first time since she saw him, "you said you ended up here in this hospital because you got into a car crash, right?"

Tony nodded wondering where she was going with her thoughts.

"But the Tony here, got blown up by an explosion," she continued ignoring his questioning look, "what if…"

Her eyes widened at the realization.

"Tony!" she yelled, "You are coming from another universe!"

The man raised an eyebrow staring at the goth like she was insane.

"Okay, let me explain," she said with a giggly tone "this is how I think things work."

With that, she started explaining him her theory, that, as unbelievable as it sounded, was also really close to what had really happened.

* * *

In the parallel universe, Kate was helping Tony out. He was really bad with this management thing! He wouldn't have been able to run a virtual business on one of this facebook games, let alone a real company! She sighed as he distractedly stared at his hand.

"DiNozzo!" she yelled, "Concentrate!"

He jumped as he was brought back to reality by Kate's voice.

"Oh c'mon, Katie!" he pouted, "This is sooooo boring! Can't we please do something funnier?"

"No," Kate stated with authority, "now read this sample contract again and tell me which one is the part that would get the major benefit out of it."

Tony took the piece of paper from her hand but instead of reading it, tossed it on the table across the couch.

"Why don't we talk about other benefits?" he seductively whispered into her ear.

She shivered at the feeling of his breath on her neck.

"DiNozzo, you have to go back to work on monday, you better be at least a little bit prepared," she said with a not-so-convincing tone.

"I promise I'll do the homework after a little break, Professor Todd" he teased grabbing her by the hips and kissing her passionately.

She tried to push him away at first, but after a few seconds she gave in and kissed him back, letting him laying on top of her while her hands slowly started to unbutton his shirt.

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R&R


	11. Chapter 11

_**A/N**: I am sorry it took so long for me to update. Winter quarter just started and my business professor is a real pain in the ass! So he's definitely the one to be blamed for the lack of updates. Well, him and my expository writing class. I do not mind writing, obviously, but 3 assignments a week are not something I was looking forward to when I signed up for that class._

_Anyway, I hope you guys will enjoy reading this chapter. I have already written next one, but I want to go over it one more time before posting it. It won't take long for the next update, I promise!_

R&R!

* * *

Tony looked out of the window. He had never been afraid of heights, but the fact that his office was on the 48th floor of a shiny skyscraper made him very conscious of how up high he was from the 'ground'.

It had been four months since the bomb explosion that had sent him in that universe. It was hard to get used to run a company, but after reading a few very boring books and with Kate's help, he was actually doing not that bad. He missed working as a special agent, but he didn't find his current job as awful as he initially had thought it would have been. Plus he had Kate, and she was the only thing he wouldn't have changed for anything in the world.

He smiled, thinking about how lucky he was. Sure his relationship with Kate was still relatively new, but he felt like they were going for the long haul, even if none of them had dared to say those little three words that supposedly were what made a relationship shift from casual to official - yet. He didn't freaked out at that thought of "settling down" and that made him smile; long-term relationships were usually a subject he didn't like to think about, especially after the whole Jeanne fiasco, but he was pretty comfortable thinking about him with Kate, and he knew it wasn't just a fling. Kate didn't do flings; at least she hadn't done any in the past 10 years or so.

It was 5:45 PM, which meant that in 15 minutes he would have finally drove back home to Kate, and finger crossed, they would have had a nice dinner at one of the fanciest restaurants in DC. He had booked a table with a one-month notice. Not that he really needed to book it with such an advance, since as soon as people usually heard his last name, he got pretty much whatever it was that he wanted.

There was no special occasion for the dinner. He just wanted to make her enjoy the time they spent together. Sure Kate said that she didn't mind where they were as long as they got to spend time together, but he still wanted to make her see that he was really putting his best effort into make things work.

A few blocks away from Tony's studio, Kate was busy trying to review a contract for a company overseas. She was trying her best to focus on the words on her screen but her mind kept drifting away to more pleasant thoughts, all of them involving Tony.

She didn't quite know how in such a short amount of time she came to like him that much. To be completely honest with herself, she never really thought about him as boyfriend material during the two years she had spent working with him. Sure there had been a great amount of physical attraction, and sometimes the sexual tension between the two of them had been so much that everybody standing in the same room could clearly feel it, but putting the words "Tony" and "serious relationship" in the same sentence fell under the category of self-destructive behavior to her – until now.

Sighing loudly, she decided there was no reason to keep staying in her office if she wasn't working, so she gathered her things and walked out of the building, towards the parking structure on the other side of the street. Reaching her car, she noticed a note on it. She smiled. It was clearly Tony's calligraphy. She unfolded the piece of paper and read the message.

_I'll pick you up at 7:30. Dress up._

_T_

She happily started the car and drove off, thinking that maybe, just_ maybe_, Tony might have been really that one person she had been looking for all along.

At 7:29 Tony was in front of Kate's building. She still lived in the big penthouse she had moved in to when she got married and somehow managed to keep after her divorce. The doorman announced Tony's arrival calling Kate, who nervously rushed downstairs.

Tony's jaw dropped as he saw her. She was stunningly gorgeous. She was wearing a very classy little black dress, very high black heels and her hair was gently falling in curly waves way past her shoulders. She would have made Coco Chanel very proud.

Tony offered her arm and she accepted with a big smile.

"You are beautiful," he shyly whispered in her ear.

She blushed slightly, somehow confused by Tony's shy and not so confident tone. It was something she wasn't used to. He was the cocky guy who could probably have any girl just by smiling at her, but now he sounded like a teenager who's finally going out with the girl of his dreams, after pining for her for the longest time. She stopped and put her hands on his chest and resting her head in the nook of his neck.

"If I wasn't afraid to give your ego an unnecessary boost, I would tell you that you are very, very handsome," she grinned.

Tony smiled and kissed her, feeling really lucky about being able to do it whenever he felt like it.

They arrived at the restaurant after a short drive, and the valet promptly opened the doors of the car to allow them to get off. Tony offered Kate his arm, which she gladly accepted. They looked really good together; it was undeniable. They ordered the best Italian red wine and Tony showed off his Italian by ordering dinner for both of them.

"Have you ever seen Gibbs in this universe?" Tony asked waiting for the food to arrive.

"Yeah," Kate answered, "until a few years ago he was still in the Navy. From what I've heard he's happily married and has a daughter."

Tony smiled. That universe had been nicer to Gibbs than the one he came from.

"What about Abby?" he inquired.

"You're never gonna believe this," she laughed, "She's an OB/GYN!"

"That sounds hinky," laughed Tony at the revelation.

"It does…" said Kate softly, trying to hide the sadness behind her voice.

She missed Abby; She missed Gibbs, Ducky, McGee and all of the people who used to be such an ever-present part of her previous life. Tony saw the pain she was feeling in her eyes and took her hand in his.

"I miss them too," he admitted, "but if I have to give up on them to have you in my life my choice is simple, and already made."

Kate smiled and squeezed Tony's hand affectionately.

Tony looked at her intently, noticing how the candle light from the table lightened her beautiful hazel eyes. And at the moment he realized that she was the one.

"Kate," he said with a voice that was barely audible, "I love you."

Her eyes widened. She felt herself melting at his words. Those simple three words. She smiled and brought a hand to his face and gently stroked his cheek.

"Tony," she said with a smile that lit up the room, "I love you, too."

* * *

Things weren't going as smoothly for another Tony, in another universe.

After being discharged from the hospital diagnosed with long-term memory loss, Ziva talked him into getting his job at NCIS back. He wasn't sure why he decided to accept the challenge. Maybe it was the memory of himself as a little kid wanting to be a cop once he grew up, or maybe it was the fascination that somehow Ziva had over him. Well, one or the other, here he was, trying to prove himself during a hard training session that went way beyond his usual gym work out.

"Oh, c'mon, Tony!" shouted Ziva amused by his exhausted look "McGee would run faster!"

Tony cursed and raised his hand waving his middle finger in her direction as he ran by her. Ziva laughed at the very pissed off look and the very ungentle gesture the man just gave her and shook her head. Maybe this guy wasn't the 'original' Tony, but she liked him nonetheless.

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R&R!


	12. Chapter 12

A/N: _I am soooo sorry for the recent lack of updates!!! I could go on and on blaming my stupid classes for it, but I am not gonna do that because I actually like them, even if they are the major cause of my sleep deprivation. Anyway, I wrote this chapter a while ago. It's not __that__ interesting, but I really wanted to include McGee in the story. Also, there is a reference to the episode"Bete Noir". I know McGee wasn't part of the team yet, but since this is an AU story, I decided to change the facts a little bit. Oh, and btw, McGee in the parallel universe is a creative writing professor at Yale.  
_

R&R!

* * *

Kate and Tony walked down the big hallway of the well-known university. Young students were passing by and many voices were echoing beneath the high ceilings.

Kate squeezed Tony's hand slightly and pointed at a door with her other hand. Tony followed Kate's gaze and read the name that was on the door out loud, almost with an overly dramatic tone.

"Timothy McGee, PhD."

"Should we knock?" inquired Kate smiling at his attempt of easing her nervousness.

"Sure thing, Katie," said DiNozzo grinning at her uncertain look, "that's why we came here, isn't it?"

Kate nodded in agreement. She was a little bit nervous about seeing McGee's alter ego. In those years she had been living as the other version of herself, she had never approached her old-life friends and acquaintances in such a direct manner. Sure she had been curious and she had made her fair share of researches to know what they were up to, but she had never dared to deliberately approach them like Tony was planning on doing. With a slightly shaky hand, she knocked on the door, almost shyly.

A voice came from the other side, loud and clear.

"Come on in," the voice said.

Tony reached the doorknob opening the door, letting Kate walk in and following her, resting a hand on her shoulder.

"What can I do for you," asked the man not really acknowledging the two, and keeping his gaze steady on the piece of paper in front of him.

"McGeek?" asked Tony, surprised at the snobbish attitude of the man sitting in front of him.

"How did you just call me?" asked Tim's alter ego with a very serious and almost domineering tone, finally looking at the other two "and who are you?"

"I am Caitlyn Todd and this is Anthony DiNozzo," quickly explained Kate trying to cover Tony's bad first impression, "We don't have an appointment and we understand you are rather busy..."

McGee studied the two people standing on the other side of his desk and raised an eyebrow trying to remember where he had seen them before. They looked somehow familiar to him, but he couldn't really pin point in which moment of his life his path had crossed theirs.

After a taking his time to think, his eyes widened for a brief second realizing what the woman said their names were. He lowered his head while rage started building into him. This was another stupid joke his students were pulling on him; those little nosy bastards. They even dared going through his personal effects, since there was no other way they could have known the names of the characters of his soon-to-be-completed book. He took a deep breath to calm himself down.

"Do you think I have time to waste?" he then asked impatiently.

Kate's smile dropped. She knew that the man behind that big writing desk didn't have any idea of who they were but at some level, mostly on an unconscious one, she had hoped she could mend the strings that somehow, very irrationally, connected her to what she once had. She felt stupid; she didn't even know what she was really expecting by almost breaking into McGee's office like that. Surely she didn't expect big hugs and melancholic stories remembering the fun they had in the past, but she felt disappointed anyway.

Tony read the emotions going through Kate and felt guilty, because after all it had been his idea to drive all the way up to Connecticut and see what McGee was up to.

"I am sorry," Tony said with an apologizing look, "my girlfriend and I were looking for a friend of ours from college called Tim McGee. You're not the one we were looking for. Sorry for bothering you."

That said, he took Kate's hand in his, leading her towards the door.

"Wait," said McGee stopping Tony from walking out of his office, "so my students didn't send you to pull a prank on me?"

"No!" exclaimed Kate, happy he was willing to give them a chance, "we… we came here just to talk to you. Nobody sent us."

"Oh, okay," sighed McGee sounding a little bit more relaxed "so… Are Caitlyn Todd and Anthony DiNozzo your real names?"

"Sure they are," replied Tony with a suspicious tone, "why?"

McGee stood up from his chair grabbing what looked like a manuscript in the process. Giving it to Kate, he let out a loud sigh and went back to his sitting position.

Kate opened the manuscript at a random page.

"_Kate Todd walked in the bullpen holding three cups of coffee; one for her, one for her boss, Gibbs and one for her partner, Tony. She was obviously still under a big amount of stress because of the kidnapping situation she faced the previous week; the dark circles under her beautiful hazel eyes were a proof of that_," she read out loud, "_Both Tony and Gibbs were trying to cover their concern. They knew the female agent was strong and they wanted to give her time and space to recover from the accident on her own. Tony, however, couldn't help but feeling the urge to protect that woman that seemed so strong but also so vulnerable; coming so close to lose her, made him rethink about the kind of relationship he wanted with her; he was still too scared to take a closer look at the feelings that he was rapidly developing for his work partner. No; DiNozzo didn't do relationships because they scared the hell out of him; more than terrorists, more than shootings… That, combined to the constant danger accompanying their job, made the prospect of a possible romantic involvement with the gorgeous brunette, almost null_."

Kate's hands were shaking as she slowly closed the manuscript placing it on the desk. She looked at McGee, but no words came out of her mouth.

Tim's gaze was traveling between the two other people in the room. He registered the shock that what he wrote had brought to both of them, and if his thoughts were going towards the right direction, he also knew why those written words had provoked such a reaction.

"You are those people, aren't you?" he asked, "You are the real Kate Todd and Tony DiNozzo."

Tony knew that that was more of a statement rather than a question, but decided to nod anyway.

"Did you make this story up?" he asked looking at McGee straight in the eyes, ready to recognize any trace of a possible lie.

"I don't know," replied the other man. "One day I woke up and I had this vivid images in my head, not like a dream, more like… another life I have had that was coming to surface while I was semi unconscious. I just decided to put those things on paper. I am a writer, you know?"

Kate bit her lower lip and searched for Tony's hand.

"You know, if I told you the rest of the story you could probably write a trilogy – if not more - out of our lives" she said tucking her hair behind her ear and smiling slightly.

"You guys weren't looking for your college friend, were you," McGee asked, "You were looking for me."

Tony nodded once again.

"I told you guys how I '_know_' you," pointed out McGee, "how do you '_know_' me?"

Tony and Kate looked at each other, uncertain if sharing a story that could have potentially had them locked in the psych ward of a hospital, with the other man. Kate imperceptibly nodded to Tony.

"You know, it's some sort of a crazy story that might sound like a very cliché' Hollywood blockbuster," started Tony, "but I swear this is as real as me talking to you right now."

He then proceeded to tell him the whole thing.

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R&R!


	13. Chapter 13

_Thank you for the reviews, I really appreciate! Hope you'll enjoy this chapter as well!_

R&R!

* * *

Gibbs walked into the bullpen and looked at his agents. Ziva and McGee were already working on their reports while Tony was yet to show up. Under normal circumstances, Gibbs would have called his senior agent and demanded a valid explanation for him not to be in yet, but he knew these weren't normal circumstances. He didn't know what to think anymore; Abby tried to sell him her theories about parallel universes, McGee and Ducky were deeply convinced it was a case of memory loss and Ziva, well, she just decided to stay by Tony's side and help him through this. He was the only one who, for once, didn't have an opinion of his own.

He had categorically refused to believe in Abby's supernatural stories, and the memory loss theory wasn't enough for him anymore. Shaking his head, he sat down behind his desk and opened the file McGee had just handed him.

Ziva looked at her boss. She could sense the frustration he was feeling in his eyes; the last few months hadn't been easy for the team. The director was still pushing Gibbs to hire a new agent, but the ex marine had done everything in his power to procrastinate that moment. It was useless, though. Tony had good instincts and brains, but he was far from being a good special agent. Gibbs couldn't take the risk of losing another one of their own; Tony wasn't trained enough to work for him.

The young Mossad Officer stood up and handed the report she wrote the night before to Gibbs. It was only 9.45 in the morning

"Gibbs…" she asked almost hesitantly, "I was thinking to go at Tony's and check on him."

Gibbs turned his attention to Ziva, surprised by her hesitant tone. He saw the concern in her eyes and that made him nod.

"You can go, David" he said with a soft yet authoritarian tone, "but I want you back before 12."

Ziva nodded gratefully and headed towards the elevator. In less than 20 minutes she was outside Tony's apartment.

She knocked on the door, but nobody answered. After a few unnerving minutes that she spent trying to decide what to do, she opted from breaking into Tony's apartment. With a well-placed kick, she slammed the door open, drawing her gun. As she did it, a familiar voice surprised her from behind.

"What the hell are you doing?" yelled Tony in disbelief.

Ziva turned around to see mixed emotions running through Tony's face. She could see a hint of anger and shock, but she also caught the slightest smile that for a second had played the lips of the man. The situation was, after all, a little bit funny.

"Why did you just do that?!" asked Tony.

"Why didn't you show up at headquarters today?" snapped Ziva questioning him back.

Tony sighed.

"What's the point of going there anyway?" he said shrugging his shoulders.

"It's your job!" she said exasperatedly.

Tony let out a sarcastic laugh.

"David, cant you see this is not working? Why are you being so stubborn?" he rhetorically questioned while passing her and getting into his apartment "this is a waste of time for me, you and the rest of the team, so please, just let it go.

"I won't let this go! We're partners, I've got your back and you've got mine," Ziva exclaimed with an almost pleading tone, "you can't just quit!"

"Watch me!" Tony yelled.

Ziva was fighting to keep her emotions under control. She didn't want him to give up. She also knew that she was being selfish at some level, but she couldn't imagine letting him go, living a life without him.

"Tony, please," she whispered.

Tony looked at the woman. The trained killer was pleading him.

"Why is this so important to you?" he asked.

Ziva bit her bottom lip feeling exposed and vulnerable. She wasn't used to feel anything like that.

"I decided to trust you. I let my guard down. I've become used to having you around. I…"

The words died in her mouth before they were spoken. She still couldn't afford crossing that bridge that would have defined what her real feelings were.

"I am not that man, Ziva," Tony softly said, resting a hand on the woman's shoulder.

Ziva looked at him. She hadn't cried in a long time and she surely wasn't going to in this occasion, but her determination didn't stop her eyes to sting, ready to water. She turned around and headed towards the broken door.

"That man is somewhere inside of you, Tony," she said trying to keep her voice steady, "you just have to look and find him."

That said, she walked out, letting out the breath she was holding and ignoring the persistent tear that had found its way out of her left eye.

* * *

"He actually believed us!" Tony exclaimed happily.

"Tony, it's been two days already," Kate said with an annoyed tone, "yes, McGee believed us, we got it. Now, can you stop sounding like a broken record and let me finish filing this documents?"

"Kate!" grinned Tony, "let me enjoy this satisfying moment!"

"Oh, Tony!" replied Kate with an overly dramatic tone, "I didn't know McGee's approval meant so much to you..."

"Haha, very funny, darling," Tony scoffed picking up the same dramatic tone used by Kate.

"So is he really coming to our place to celebrate the 4th of July?" Kate questioned him.

"I guess so!" he smiled happily but quickly covering it after seeing the teasing smile ready to cross Kate's lips, "not that I care..."

"You better call him next week," said Kate lifting a few sheets of papers from the stock in front of her.

"We could drive back to Hartford during the weekend and meet him for lunch instead of calling him," Tony suggested, "we'll get to talk to him and we'll also get a brief romantic getaway. What do you think about that, Kate?"

"I can't," she sighed sadly, "I am drowning in paperwork."

"All work, no fun, huh?" he grinned getting closer to her starting to give her a shoulder massage.

"Tony, I simply don't want to get fired" she explained "you know that I am not a big fan of my job, but one of the downfalls of being adults is having to work."

"We should go on vacation somewhere," Tony said with an excited voice "file a request to have a week off next month."

"Tony… I don't think that's a good idea," Kate replied shaking her head and hiding a small smile, "after your accident and all."

"Just think about it, okay?" the man whispered in her ear.

She nodded almost imperceptibly and kept reading the file she was holding.

Tony kept massaging her tense shoulders. He still found it hard to believe Kate Todd was allowing him to touch her. He would have never imagined they could have made a good couple, a happy couple; but they did. The working relationship he had built with her during her two years at NCIS had had its ups and downs. They pushed each other's buttons to the limit, bickering and subtly flirting; nothing that could have let him hope for anything more than a friendship, though. He certainly had been attracted to her. He was a guy and she was an attractive woman, but she never showed real interest in him or his provoking and mischievous words. He was glad he had been wrong.

He quietly stood up from behind her and sat right in front of her, on the other side of the table watching her intently reading what she had written the previous night. She was absently chewing the bottom of the pen she was holding, which he found oddly sexy. As she placed the piece of paper she had been holding on the table, Tony spoke again.

"You know I have a house in the Hamptons…" he started.

"Tony, there's no need to show off, I already love you," she grinned.

"Nice to know, but that's not the point," he said walking around the table and leaning against the table, standing right next to her "I was thinking we should go there the upcoming weekend. You know, the weather is nice and I would get to see you in a bikini; or a wet T-shirt. Your choice."

Kate rolled her eyes at his last comment.

"Tony, we can't get distracted by romantic getaways right now," Kate said.

"Hey, I got better at running that damn company, haven't I?" the man defended himself.

She took his hand and smiled at him.

"You sure did, but see, my work performance has decreased in the past two months and my boss doesn't really like that" she sighed, "apparently some clients complained about the fact that I am often unreachable."

"What?!" snapped Tony feeling the urge to punch her boss, "you are a workaholic! You're great at what you do, why would anybody complain about you?"

Kate shrugged her shoulders with a sad smile.

"Kate, if you don't like your job, just quit," Tony said softly hugging her and kissing her on her temple.

"And what should I do, instead?" she sarcastically asked him, "move to Vegas and become a stripper?"

"Well, that would be a very appealing possibility, and I would absolutely approve your choice and support you," he grinned, "but what about doing something you're really passionate about?"

"Like what?" she inquired confused.

"What about drawing? I haven't seen you drawing anything since I got here," he pointed out.

"Are you suggesting I should become a painter or something?" Kate asked with an ironic tone.

"Why not?" he questioned slightly holding her closer.

"Because I am not a teenager, Tony" she explained.

"What does that mean?" he questioned her.

"In adults' world, most things are not supposed to be fun, but they have to be done nonetheless," she explained.

"I get your point," Tony sighed, "I just want you to know that if you'll ever decide to quit that damn job you hate, you will have my support and I'll be ready to celebrate."

She smiled at him, stood up and hugged him.

"Thank you, Tony," she gratefully whispered in his ear.

He took her hand and smiled back at her.

"I was thinking," he started a little hesitantly, "I mean, it was just a thought…"

Kate looked at him, curious.

"Well," he continued a bit embarrassed, "maybe we should move in together."

He caught the surprised look in her eyes.

"You know, it's just an idea, we don't have to do that if you don't want to, but I just thought that maybe it would be nice. It's not like you've been spending a lot of time at your place anyway," he faltered through.

"I'd love to move in with you Tony," said Kate with a smile, calming him down, "but I can't help being surprised at how sure you are about everything. I mean… you seem so confident about this. About us."

"Because I am," smiled Tony, "so, are you moving in with me?"

"Yes, Tony," nodded Kate kissing him lightly on the lips.

She smiled at him trying to push away all the doubts that were clouding that perfect moment. She wondered why she was so scared about letting her guard completely down in her relationship with Tony. After all he had done anything he could have done to prove her that he was 100% committed and 100% in love with her.

Sighing almost imperceptibly, she ran a hand through his hair capturing his lips with hers and leading him towards the couch. She positioned herself on top of him, started to slowly undress herself, her eyes never losing contact with his, with a seductive grin and pressing her hips on his as her hands ran through the hem of his pants, unbuttoning them.

Tony grinned back at her, excited about her taking the lead so boldly. He never thought he could have been so much into a woman like he was now with Kate. He might have been rushing things with her a little, but that was because he was sure, for the first time in his life, of where he wanted their relationship to head. He wanted commitment and he wanted it with her. Nothing in the world would have made him change his mind.

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R&R!!


	14. Chapter 14

_**A/N**: New chapter, finally!!! I am planning on updating more often. I finally got used to the insane amount of essays that have to be written for my classes and I finally found a way to write them without jeopardizing my reputation as a party girl and well, my updates here on FF.  
_

_Oh, and btw, I started writing a new fic just out of boredom, during class. Kate/Tony, of course. _

.net/s/5738622/1/Runaway

* * *

Kate was in shit. She was in deep shit. And she knew it.

Sitting behind her desk she couldn't do anything but nervously biting the end of an innocent pencil. She felt childish, because she didn't know how to face her boss. She knew that sooner or later, she had to get out of those safe four walls and talk face to face with the current source of her troubles – at least one of the current sources of her troubles.

She was fully conscious of the fact that her work performance in the last few months had been poor and inconsistent. She knew that she had been unreliable, and she knew that she had no one to blame but herself. All of these things just made her extremely angry. She wasn't used to be the one who messed around. She was the professional one; she was the one who fixed the troubles other people made. At least she used to be that person.

Now she felt like she had lost herself. She thought about Tony. Was he the reason why she was being so distracted? She shook that idea from her head. She loved Tony and if she had to choose from him and her job, she knew that her job couldn't stand a chance.

She had grown up to understand that her career wasn't everything. Of course, just a few years before, while still living her old life and trying to juggle her job at NCIS and the boyfriend of the month, she would have chosen her job, hands down. Now it was different. She knew that her heart wouldn't have allowed her to give up on her relationship with Tony by using her job as the major factor for the break-up. This was totally different. And it scared her; it scared her shitless.

She didn't know when exactly she had allowed herself to fall completely, head over heels, in love with Tony DiNozzo. She had known all along that, if she had given him the chance, he would have been the one to stick around; still she hadn't done anything to prevent it. Why? She knew the reason was simple: love.

It didn't even feel like a sacrifice, now that she was thinking about it. She had decided to take the risk with Tony, and now all the pieces seemed to fall into place in her mind. She had finally got it. Life was all about taking risks; some were bigger than the others, but everything was a bet against fate. Until then she had thought she knew better. She played safe and stayed in the corner, as a silent spectator to her own life, but the fact that whatever powerful source in the universes made it possible for her to live the way she had got to live in the past few months with Tony, only proved that she had to trust destiny just a little bit more and loosen up a little.

Still completely caught up in her thoughts she glanced at the picture on her desk and she couldn't help but grin. It had been taken just two months after she and Tony had officially decided to pursue a relationship with each other. Tony had snapped the picture himself, while kissing her sweetly on the cheek. Her smile could have lit up a whole building.

Looking at that picture gave her the courage to finally stand up and get out of the room that had been her chosen shelter for the day.

Kate, walking out of her office, nodded affectionately at her secretary, who was stunned by the gesture. Kate Todd, during those six years she had worked with her, rarely acknowledge her presence.

She walked fast, towards her boss' and didn't even hesitate in knocking on the half-closed door.

"I quit," she announced with a very steady voice.

The grey man behind the desk looked up, trying to see through her to find a reason for her sudden act. Sure she hadn't been at her best lately, well to be completely honest she had been totally off, but she was still a valuable associate to his firm and he wasn't willing to let her go without at least an explanation.

"Is it your way to ask for a raise?" the man asked raising an eyebrow.

"No," Kate replied shaking her head, "it's my way to tell you I don't want to work here anymore."

"Is there a reason behind your choice?" he inquired with a tone that made Kate shiver slightly "did you get a better offer somewhere else?".

"Being a lawyer is not exactly my call," she said shrugging her shoulders as if the statement was the most normal thing in the world.

"You've been a lawyer for over half of your adult life, Caitlyn," the man made her notice.

"I know," Kate, replied, "it's been long enough."

With that she smiled politely and headed out of the shiny skyscraper. She felt the wind blowing on her face and smiled. Her Ivy League post grad was now as useful as a bunch of chewed gums. Walking as fast as her 6-inch heels allowed her to, she headed towards Tony's company building, which was just a few blocks down the same street. As she approached the door to his office, she couldn't keep a smile from playing her lips.

She didn't bother knocking and opened the door running towards him.

His initially shocked look was quickly replaced by a very pleased one. He kissed her softly smiling at her unusually over-excited behavior. Not that he minded, but that was still a new side of her that he hadn't had the time to know in greater details.

"I decided it was time to quit," she grinned.

"You never smoked…" he replied confused.

"I meant my job, you silly!" she exclaimed throwing her arms around his neck and acting like she was the lead actress in a very cliché' teen movie.

"You really did that?" he asked, surprised and excited at the same time.

"Yes!" she said jumping a little and landing on his lap, "and I feel like a brand new me."

"We have to celebrate" he said with a smile that made her knees go weak.

She turned serious all of a sudden.

"Are you sure you're really okay with this?" she asked looking straight into his eyes, her profiler mode activated.

"Yes, Kate," he replied affectionately stroking her cheek, "I am really okay. Actually I am even more than okay. I am absolutely happy for you."

Her hazel eyes caught his green ones.

"God, Tony, I love you," she murmured.

"I love you more" he grinned placing a kiss on the top of her nose.

They both laughed. But Kate turned serious again.

"What if it happens again?" she asked.

"What are you talking about, honey?" he questioned her back with a concerned look on his face.

"The universe swap" she replied biting her lip.

"It won't," he answered calming her down, "I mean, what are the odds?"

"With us you never know," she said, this time smiling slightly.

"Okay, lets make a pact," he started looking straight into her eyes, "if that will ever happen again, the only thing you will have to do is hurt the other me on one given day, at a one given time and I will do the best to hurt myself at the exact same time."

"Tony!" she exclaimed "you want me to practice a violent behavior on an innocent man?!"

"You never had a problem elbowing me in the stomach," he replied slightly amused by her concern.

"Well, you deserved it," she observed, "This would be different."

"Listen, Kate," he said not capable of keeping a smile from forming on his lips, "if your theories are right, that's the only way for the swap to happen, so under those circumstances you will have to grit your teeth and hit."

Kate rolled her eyes.

"Hey!" he said catching her attention, "I am planning this thing just to make you feel better, because honestly chances that it will happen again pretty much equal zero!"

"I know," she explained, "it's just that today I realized that you are what makes my life worth-living, and I don't think I could stand losing you."

Her gaze dropped to the floor as she explained her concerns to him. She was embarrassed. Before that moment she had let no man seeing her that vulnerable.

Tony kissed her softly understanding her worries and as equally afraid of losing her as she was of losing him.

"Every first day of the month at 12 PM," he stated after a brief hesitation.

"What are you talking about?" she asked slightly perplexed.

"If the swap happens, that's when you'll have to fix it," he explained.

She nodded and let out a small sigh. She couldn't believe she was finding herself in such a situation: unemployed, in love and ready to hit a man on the head every first day of the month – if necessary.

* * *

R&R, please!


End file.
